Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1996. He is the author of the Times best-sellers The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking,Outliers: The Story of Success, and What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures.

Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1996. He is the author of the Times best-sellers "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference," "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking," "Outliers: The Story of Success," and "What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures."

Author Malcolm Gladwell discusses the importance of creativity in addressing societal problems. America focusses mainly on the severity of a punishment, he notes, while neglecting that deterrence is also affected by the certainty of getting caught and how quickly punishment takes place.